


Heart & Soul

by KupoWonders



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, F/M, M/M, Multi, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-13 17:23:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21186899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KupoWonders/pseuds/KupoWonders
Summary: A soulmate is someone you share your heart with. When you start sharing your heart with lots of different people, things begin to get pretty complicated.(Or: a brief exploration of the Kingdom Hearts series from Birth by Sleep to 3D's secret ending, if everyone had their soulmates' name(s) on their skin.)





	Heart & Soul

**Author's Note:**

> I started thinking about soulmate AUs, and how complicated it would be for Sora to have a soulmate mark for everyone who has been in his heart (as well as others) and this was born. Hope you enjoy!

No one had heard of a soulmate mark appearing at birth, but when Sora was little more than a few minutes old, pale letters began to curve above his heart. His parents watched on in stunned disbelief as the letters curved and dipped in his skin to spell out the name _Ventus_, and had looked between themselves, silently deciding that they would make sure that every ‘Ventus’ they came across was good enough for their son. 

(They did not find a Ventus on any of the Destiny Islands, despite their searching. And Sora didn’t find a Ventus in any of the worlds until he was sixteen years old, and by then he had discovered that ‘soulmate’ marks were a lot more complicated than anyone had ever told him.)

*

When Aqua had first seen Ventus, she was embarrassed to admit that she’d been alarmed. Her own soulmate mark had arrived promptly at the age of five, the name _Terra_ sitting strong and sturdy on her left shoulder, and she had never heard of other people’s marks appearing anywhere more prominent than an arm, or a leg, or a chest. So when Master Xehanort had appeared with his hand clamped down on the shoulder of a tiny blond boy with the name _Vanitas_ carved down the side of his face, she had been surprised. When the boy responded to Terra’s questions with one word answers and then a scream, she had been alarmed, but after he had collapsed all of that had disappeared. It didn’t matter who this boy was, or that he had marks on his face – she would look after him until he woke. That was her duty. 

(And if, as he lay unconscious on the bed in the room the Master gave him, Aqua spotted strange, ancient letters that she vaguely recognised from the oldest books in her Master’s library twirling around his ankle, she didn’t think anything of it, or of the ancient person who may once have been destined to share half of this boy’s soul, before fate intervened to tear him away.)

But as years went on, and Terra decided that he needed to prove himself to people who already knew and loved him, they drifted apart. Even though she knew that their souls would lead them back together she still made the three of them good luck charms – a little push, a little tug closer together couldn’t hurt, right? That way they’d be together even when they were apart, even when the word on her shoulder seemed like a mistake, even when the blank space where Ventus’s name could have been gnawed at her. 

In the end, it hadn’t helped – by the time her boys returned to her, sadness haunting their faces, it was too late. In the graveyard she was knocked unconscious and Ventus was cornered by a boy in a mask, a creature with a damaged heart that bled monsters, who hid his face yet had the same name that had marked Ventus like a brand. And when the mask was pulled away, revealing a face that wasn’t his face, a name that had once been the boy’s reaching down from his eye to his jaw, like a tear track, he’d grinned at him before stealing his skin, and the boy that was left behind had both names carved on his cheeks. 

(When Xehanort told Terra that the boy in the mask’s name was Vanitas, he had despaired – how could the one who was supposed to be Ven’s soulmate be the monster who was spreading chaos and darkness unchecked across the worlds? But Xehanort had smiled a twisted, knowing smile, and had told him that there were many ways for someone to share a soul.)

She’d freed him eventually, and though his own name faded slightly, the shadow of it still clung to Ventus’s skin. But when she found her other boy, the boy whose name had been on her skin since she was five, he was changed. 

The hand he used to grab her throat had Xehanort’s name curled around the knuckles. 

(When she roamed the Realm of Darkness for a decade, she tried to forget the bad times. She wished it was easier to see her shoulder, to see the promise of Terra, but her good luck charm would have to be enough. That would be her wayfinder, bringing her home to her boys.)

*

Usually soulmate marks appeared in early childhood, and Riku had been patiently waiting for his ever since he had found out what they were. When they had been hiding in the secret place Sora had told him about the mark above his heart, and Riku had definitely not been jealous that someone else had stolen his best friend from him before they’d even had a chance to meet. (If he’d stormed off in a huff, or maybe fought a little more aggressively with his toy sword after that, then it was definitely unrelated.)

But one day, when Riku was five and Sora was four, he woke up with a name scrawled on his wrist in perfect, cursive script, and he had been filled with joy before his practical mind caught up with his heart. How could Sora’s name be on his skin, when Sora’s soul already had Ventus? But then on the way to school Sora had tackled him, throwing his arms around his neck and shoving his own wrist in Riku’s face, laughing all the while. And Riku had seen his own name in bright and shining silver on his best friend’s tiny wrist, and all of the confusion disappeared. ‘Ventus’ must have been a mistake, his soulmate was Sora after all, the universe was fixing itself and throwing them back into each other’s orbit-

And then Sora had shown Riku his other wrist, where _Kairi_ twined possessively over the skin. 

(It was weeks until the meteor shower. Weeks where Riku tried to ignore the names of people who didn’t even exist who were going to take his soulmate away, of how unfair it was that the only person in all of the world who had more than one soulmate was the one person who he was bound to. Then the stars fell out of the sky, and a tiny girl appeared alone and confused on the beach. Sora’s eyes had lit up, their duo became a trio, and suddenly he had to share – his marked hand holding Sora’s marked hand, while Sora’s held Kairi’s.)

(Riku had never been very good at sharing.)

*

When the islands fell to darkness and he awoke in the cold of Hollow Bastion, Riku had pulled down his wristband to make sure that Sora’s name was still there, that what he had done hadn’t stolen his friend away from him forever, that the darkness hadn’t killed him after all. He had choked on a sob when he had seen it, still solid and strong and _there_. 

(He’d started wearing the wristband a few years ago, when Sora had started looking at Kairi a little differently and Kairi had suddenly been eager to get Sora alone, and involve Riku less. He didn’t want to tear them apart, not when he could feel the draw to both of them so strongly. He wished that he had Kairi’s name too, so that everything was less painful, so that they would never have to compete, so that neither of them would have to lose. So he hid the marks and pretended he didn’t care, when, like always, he cared more than he wanted to.)

(The three of them had started talking about the raft around then, and Riku had hoped that would bring them together again, but every time he saw the other marks on Sora’s skin, the marks that proved that even though they were best friends and their souls were bound, he knew that Sora didn’t need him as much as he needed him.)

(He knew that he wasn’t enough.)

The witch had found him not long after, and later she found the empty body of the girl who shared Sora’s soul, just like he did, and suddenly Riku _knew_. He might not be enough for Sora on his own, but he could save her. He could be strong enough to prove the universe wrong, to prove that Kairi could be his like Sora was his, and wouldn’t that be poetic, for him to be the knight in shining armour who saved her when she wasn’t even his to save? 

So he kept the wristbands on and dove deeper into darkness, getting stronger and stronger and more and more furious when Sora didn’t seek out either of the soulmates written on his wrists, but ran around with his Keyblade, playing hero in a game he didn’t understand. Didn’t he care where they were? Didn’t he care if they were safe, if they were whole? He had a backup, after all – he still had the stranger’s name over his heart, while the people he had were shackles around his wrists, chaining him to the islands and holding him down. 

If Sora didn’t think he was good enough, then fine. Riku would make his own destiny, and if he had to burn away the part of his soul that was Sora’s to do so, then he would.

*

When he let in the man in the robe, he felt something sear his heart, scorching it and marking him somewhere he couldn’t see. He’d wanted to scream, wanted to demand to know what he’d done, but then his body was no longer his own, and he never got the chance.

*

It had hurt, for Sora to raise a blade against his soulmate. It had felt wrong, when it hadn’t felt wrong for him to fight the people terrorising the worlds. When he’d battled Clayton, or Ursula, or Maleficent he had never felt his soul itself protest, but every time he moved to strike Riku everything within him told him to stop. The wrist bearing his name – the wrist that led to his sword hand, the hand that had only ever sparred against Riku, never fought for his life – seemed to burn, but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop, not if he was going to save Kairi. 

After the Riku that was not Riku disappeared, he himself disappearing not long after and reappearing in the arms of his soulmate, Sora had felt different. He hadn’t realised what exactly had changed until he spotted Kairi’s arm, at the soft cursive writing curling around the bicep that wasn’t covered by her yellow armband, pale as a wisp but unmistakable. _Namine_ blinked at him, almost apologetically, and he had just stared in surprise and wonder until Kairi had poked his own bicep and he glanced down, to see _Namine_ marking him too. __

_ _“Huh?” he had said, eloquent, and Kairi had laughed before tapping her blank collarbone. _ _

_ _“There’s another one there, too,” she pointed out, and Sora had just blinked at her, not comprehending. “It says ‘Roxas’.”_ _

_ _“Huh,” Sora repeated. _ _

_ _“You have a lot of people who need you,” Kairi said with no jealousy, no anger, but with a sad, wistful smile on her face. “You’re going back for Riku, aren’t you?”_ _

_ _Sora offered her an awkward smile, rubbing at the back of his head. “I have to.”_ _

_ _Kairi looked up, gaze catching on Riku’s name, blinking back at her from Sora’s wrist, and she glanced away. _ _

_ _“Do you think… things will ever be the same between us?” she asked. “Riku’s lost his...”_ _

_ _Sora didn’t answer, but Kairi didn’t need him to. She passed him a good luck charm, a token that hopefully would bind him tighter to her and ensure his return, and wished him luck as he disappeared, leaving her behind._ _

_ _*_ _

_ _When he was about to give up, about to concede to the door to darkness that was so impossibly heavy, Riku appeared to help him and save them. Sora had been so happy to see him and too determined to save the worlds that he had crossed in order to find him that he didn’t notice the curl of black around Riku’s neck, like a collar, spelling _Ansem_ and marking him forever._ _

_ _*_ _

_ _Meanwhile, a shadow of a girl kept stealing glances toward her arm when her captors weren’t looking, something that couldn’t be a heart fluttering in her chest when she saw _Sora_ there, proud and strong. While the cursive _Kairi_ on her wrist felt like a brand, something harsh and cruel reminding her of all she was and all she never could be, _Sora_ made her feel lighter, made her feel whole. _ _

_ _Like she had a soul to share. _ _

_ _Marluxia caught her looking once, and his hand had landed on her shoulder. His grip was light, but held her like iron nevertheless – she stiffened beneath it, scarcely remembering to breathe, palm going sweaty around the crayon clutched between her fingers. _ _

_ _“He will be with you soon, Namine,” he purred, as though his words were something that should make her warm, instead of freezing her in place. “Then you’ll have your soulmate all to yourself. Won’t that be wonderful?”_ _

_ _Her fingers had clenched, thinking of the bright boy who would be her soulmate fawning over her with a dead look in his eyes, false devotion blinding him to anything that wasn’t her or Marluxia’s plans. It turned her stomach. But, even though it sickened her, how could she deny Marluxia? How could she tell him no and watch as the castle doors were locked, keeping her trapped and alone? Trapped like a bird in a cage, a princess in a tower that no one would ever climb. She might be saving Sora from his schemes, even if only temporarily, but she would be dooming herself to a life that wasn’t a life at all, imprisoned and alone forever. She wasn’t strong enough to deny him and risk that reality. _ _

_ _But she wished she was strong enough to save him._ _

_ _*_ _

_ _Meanwhile, a boy in black with words on his wrists, his arm, his chest watched a girl in black lower her hood for the first time since they’d met, only just managing to say his name, and as he saw her face it took him a moment to see the dark lines splashed across her collarbone, spelling out _Roxas_. He invited her to the clock tower, and as he shared ice cream with the girl who had his name on her skin, he felt like he could breathe easier than he had ever since Axel had left without saying goodbye._ _

_ _Later, when he looked in the mirror, he was surprised to see that he matched her too - as across his collarbone, poking out beneath his coat in dark, glistening letters, was _Xion_._ _

_ _*_ _

_ _“I got her name first,” Sora told Donald and Goofy in between floors of the strange, illusory castle, wistful grin on his face. “Riku was so jealous, but he tried to hide it. He liked her too, I think – we used to fight over who she’d draw next. She was really, really good.”_ _

_ _Maybe Riku was still jealous – maybe that was why he was acting so strangely, still so angry and hurting even when he had helped him at the door to darkness. Sora just needed to show him that it didn’t matter how many soulmates he had, Riku was still his best friend, and Riku still mattered to him. That no matter what Riku did or what he said, he wouldn’t give up on him._ _

_ _(When he moved up floor after floor, he didn’t notice as every name seemed to disappear from his skin, until only _Namine_ remained.)_ _

_ _*_ _

_ _When another Riku appeared, grinning at him with Ansem’s name slashing his throat, sneering about how weak the real deal was by fearing the man who had not only stolen his body but part of his soul, Riku’s shock had quickly been replaced by shame that he had to get rid of, no matter what. He had fought back, showing by force how weak the imitation’s words were, but they still lingered beneath his skin. _ _

_ _He was grateful that there were no mirrors in this strange castle’s basement, so that he couldn’t see the name seared into his neck, but he could no longer bear to tug up the wristband that hid Sora’s name. What if by taking Ansem into his heart, he had lost the part of him that was bound to Sora? What if he would look down and his best friend’s name had gone, and all that remained was the symbol of all of his mistakes? He had been willing to give up everything to punish Sora for daring to be bound to others who weren’t him – it would be fitting for him to lose everything for his selfishness. _ _

_ _He was almost thankful for the dark suit that clung to him when he used the powers that man had given him, the powers that blackened his heart like a stain, when it wrapped around his neck and hid Ansem’s name for the world. _ _

_ _(He was almost thankful even when his replica appeared in it, so that he never had to look at his own mistakes.)_ _

_ _*_ _

_ _“Goodbye.”_ _

_ _Sora paused outside the pod, turning back to Namine with a smile. _ _

_ _“No, not goodbye! When I wake up, I’ll find you. Then there will be no lies – we’re going to be friends for real!”_ _

_ _“You’re going to forget making that promise,” Namine reminded him, a sad smile on her face, but Sora shook his head. _ _

_ _“No, I won’t – look!” He gestured to the name curled around his bicep, the name that had been there ever since he had stabbed his heart with the Keyblade, the name that had been there even before Namine had interfered with his memories. “We were meant to meet – we were meant to be friends! Our souls are meant to be together, no matter what. We’ll find each other again. Promise me, Namine.”_ _

_ _Namine’s smile became a little more genuine, but she bowed her head to hide it a little. “Yeah,” she said, hope beginning to bloom in her voice. “You’re right. Okay, it’s a promise!”_ _

_ _*_ _

_ _“Yeah, I recognise you,” Sora had hissed in the ruins of Destiny Islands, as he forced his blade down towards Riku’s throat. He wasn’t even looking at his face – just at the name marring his neck. “I see exactly what you’ve become.”_ _

_ _In that moment, Riku knew that he’d lost his soulmate. He knew that what he’d done couldn’t be undone, that he had destroyed everything that was important to him and hadn’t thought twice about it. This was his punishment, and he would have to bear it._ _

_ _Even when Namine pulled him out of the light, saving him from Zexion’s illusions, and he knew that Sora had never really been there at all, he couldn’t quite shake that from his mind. That might not have been the real Sora, but even the real Sora wouldn’t be able to forgive him._ _

_ _He still couldn’t bring himself to move the wristband and see if Sora’s name was there. _ _

_ _*_ _

_ _When Axel came back, he had stared at Roxas for a long moment, wondering how in the worlds he had managed to get a soulmate mark in the few weeks he had been at Castle Oblivion. Wondering how in the worlds he had another soulmate mark at all, when he didn’t have a heart and therefore didn’t have a soul. He was supposed to just be a body, like all of them were, still marked like they had been when they were whole and still had the chance to find a soulmate after all, but heartless, soulless Nobodies didn’t spontaneously get soulmate marks. _ _

_ _He wondered if Roxas had somehow drawn it on himself when he was bored, but when they found Xion, despondent and Keyblade-less on the streets of Twilight Town, and she finally decided to lower her hood and actually look him in the eye, Roxas’s name was on her own collarbone. They matched in the way that only soulmates could, and Axel could have sworn that he felt happy for them among all of the confusion, as if he actually had the capacity to feel anything. _ _

_ _He knew it would only be a matter of time before the question came, after witnessing first-hand how clueless the two of them were about literally everything, but he was still unprepared when Roxas asked him what the marks meant over ice cream. Axel had choked, and two pairs of bright, curious blue eyes had been fixed on him, waiting for him to finish embarrassing himself and educate them like he always did. _ _

_ _(When they looked at him like that, he wished he’d paid more attention in school. He wished he hadn’t been stupid and impulsive enough to get his heart ripped out of his chest before he was sixteen, and wished that he’d seen anything of the world with the eyes of an adult that wasn’t painfully lacking in empathy, or the capacity to give a damn about anything but getting his life back. It was annoying, constantly realising that he was responsible for these kids. It was annoying, knowing that he was probably the least qualified person in the world for this job he hadn’t signed up for, but knowing that there was no one else they’d latch onto. It hurt, knowing he wasn’t good enough for them, and all of these things were way too close to the emotions he wasn’t supposed to have to be comforting.)_ _

_ _So he’d tried to explain in some kind of roundabout way that the marks were supposed to be some kind of guidance for people, to lead them to the person who would be really important to them in all sorts of ways, and Roxas and Xion had listened so intently before looking at each other and glancing away with embarrassed smiles on their faces. _ _

_ _And then Roxas, tactless as ever, asked Axel if he had one too, as if he didn’t see it pretty much every day. So Axel told him he did, but that it didn’t matter because he was a Nobody and Nobodies didn’t have soulmates, couldn’t appreciate it in a way that mattered, and that he didn’t want to talk about it any further than that. And Roxas, even though he had that look in his face that meant he _really_ wanted to press it, decided to be merciful for once and let it lie, so Axel could pretend that the sharp lines on his temple that spelled out _Isa_ weren’t there. _ _

_ _Just like he had for the last ten years. _ _

_ _*_ _

_ _Roxas didn’t understand why he had so many names on his skin other than Xion’s, but at least the others were hidden beneath his coat. He ignored them for the most part – they were just words, they didn’t matter – but when the Riku and Kairi that were written on his wrists started appearing in his dreams, they became a little harder to ignore. Why did they seem so familiar? Was he seeing these people in his dreams because fate was trying to pull them together, even though he already had Xion and Axel? _ _

_ _He tried not to dwell on it – it didn’t matter anyway, Axel had told him that he would only really understand what the whole ‘soulmates’ thing meant when he had a heart, so Kingdom Hearts needed to be completed before he could worry about something as strange as having multiple soulmates. _ _

_ _(Xigbar had laughed at him when he had seen Xion’s name on his collarbone, saying something about the many faces of love and about how soulmates always seemed to make things so much more complicated. Roxas had mostly ignored him – what did Xigbar know about anything anyway? - but his laughter still stuck in his mind.)_ _

_ _But as time went by and Xion became more distant, became unpredictable and sad when she had been as constant and bright as the sunlight shining on the Twilight Town clock tower, Roxas wished that he knew what to do and what to say. He was supposed to be her soulmate, he was supposed to be there for her, but whenever he decided to talk to her about it she was nowhere to found, and when she was in front of him he suddenly had no idea how to talk to her any more. His constant headaches and weariness just made everything even more difficult, and when Xion disappeared, leaving the Organization without a word or a goodbye, everything fell apart. _ _

_ _*_ _

_ _Riku was different to the Riku in her memories. He wasn’t the bright, bold boy who had fought her with wooden swords, but some quiet, suddenly tall young man who hid the mark on his wrist behind a stolen coat, and had the slash of another’s name across his neck. He’d seemed so sad when she’d told him about Roxas, but then again every time she saw him he seemed sad. She couldn’t blame him – his soulmate was asleep somewhere, alone, and would stay asleep unless someone did something. Unless _she_ did something. _ _

_ _“Do you hate me for taking your soulmate away from you?” she had asked him once. She’d felt bitter, angry – here was a stranger telling her that everything she knew was a lie, telling her she had to make an impossible choice and leave behind her friends, her soulmate, to save his. It wasn’t fair, and part of her wanted him to hate her – then maybe she could find it in herself to hate him, too._ _

_ _“Nah,” he’d replied, turning his face away. “I guess… I’m just sad.”_ _

_ _And that, more than the change between him and the Riku in her (stolen) memories, made all of the anger drain from her completely, leaving her only with guilt. But that guilt wasn’t enough for her to change her mind. She couldn’t leave her friends. And, surprisingly enough, Riku had accepted that – telling her that she needed to think about her answer, make sure it was the right thing to do, but giving her that chance in the first place. So she stayed, even when it started eating her up inside, even when Roxas started to grow weaker and weaker and other names began to appear on her skin, mirroring the boy in her dreams who was and wasn’t her at all. _ _

_ _In the end, she made a choice. It was the hardest choice she had ever made, and it made her chest hurt and Roxas’s name on her skin _burn_, but it was her choice. Someone had to make things right. _ _

_ _(When she met Namine, and saw Roxas’s name on her, Xion knew that he would be okay. The time she had spent with him and Axel was hers and hers alone, but he had others who would meet him and care for him, and be part of his life where she couldn’t be. That would have to be enough. Even as Namine had told her that no one would remember her when she was gone, that she wouldn’t even be a memory, Xion had known that it would be okay. Because even if Roxas didn’t know that he had known her, didn’t remember the sunsets and the moments that had made her difficult existence worth living, he would still have her name on his skin, and would think of her. Even if he didn’t know exactly who he was thinking of.)_ _

_ _(But she should have known that the Organization would never let her make her own choices so easily.)_ _

_ _*_ _

_ _When Xion had faced him with the face of the boy from his dreams, the same Sora who he shared his soulmates with – every soulmate who wasn’t Xion, the only one that he knew and that actually mattered – Roxas hadn’t realised what it meant. When he had been forced to fight for his life, to fight for the body and soul she needed to be complete, he still didn’t understand. Why was this happening? They weren’t the same, Xion had told him as much herself, why did they have to fight so that one could live? They weren’t broken mirrors, desperately trying to seal up cracks so that they didn’t just reflect warped fragments of something that was once whole, they were friends, they were soulmates- _ _

_ _But maybe this is what it meant to be soulmates, Roxas thought as he ducked under the wide arc of Xion’s blade. Maybe being Nobodies and Replicas twisted everything out of place, so instead of being two people who were just supposed to be part of each other’s lives, kindred spirits, they were fractured pieces of someone else who wouldn’t be themselves once they were pieced back together. _ _

_ _And as he held this dark-haired girl in his arms as she faded, he knew that she mattered to him more than anything in the worlds, and he would tear apart everything the Organization had built to get her back. _ _

_ _*_ _

_ _In the end, Riku wouldn’t let him._ _

_ _*_ _

_ _Hayner, Pence and Olette knew about the weird soul marks Roxas had all over his body, but not many others in Twilight Town did. He hid one of the names on his wrist behind a wristband, and he zipped his jacket up to the neck to make sure that he hid the ones on his collarbones. The only one that was still visible was _Kairi_, and he was beginning to suspect that the girl in his dreams – the girl whose face was always blurry, whose voice always a little muffled or distorted so that he couldn’t hear it properly – was Kairi. He wanted to talk to his friends about it, to ask if it was normal to dream of your soulmate (and if that was, if it was supposed to feel like a memory, even if that memory wasn’t yours) but then lots of weird things started happening around town, and it suddenly didn’t seem that important. _ _

_ _Then he met Namine, who had his name on her skin and an apology in her eyes, and told him that she’d wanted to meet him as the world around them both froze in time. And when he met her again she was sitting across from him in a white room, telling him that he didn’t really exist, he didn’t think soulmates were supposed to make him feel so sad. _ _

_ _The world around him crumbled, DiZ sneering at his pain all the while, and once he remembered who he was all he wanted to do was punish Sora for ruining his life, for being worth so much more than he was and so intrinsically tied to him even though he didn’t know who he even _was_-_ _

_ _And then he saw him, this boy with all of his matching marks, sleeping soundly and innocently, unaware of how much pain had been caused in his name, and the white-knuckled grip on his weapon went slack. It wasn’t Sora’s fault. Not really. It was no one’s fault but destiny, tearing them apart but leaving enough room for them to grow into pieces that no longer fit together right, into pieces that were people in their own right until they couldn’t be any more. _ _

_ _He’d been punished for that enough. He couldn’t punish Sora too. _ _

_ _“You’re lucky,” he told him, smiling. “Looks like my summer vacation is… over.”_ _

_ _*_ _

_ _When Sora woke up from a very long nap with no memories of how he got to this strange world, he wasn’t worried. It didn’t matter after all – he still had Donald and Goofy, and Kairi was safe, and Riku was with the King so he would be okay. He did need to find him though, and maybe find out who Roxas and Namine were along the way (especially since there was that cryptic note in Jiminy’s journal, telling them to thank her). He set out on his adventure without a care in the world, not knowing all of the heartache that lingered in his shadows, or how he had already influenced his soulmates lives. _ _

_ _(And when he occasionally caught sight of his reflection, seeing _Xion_ glinting on his collarbone opposite _Roxas_, he didn’t quite understand the grief that punched him in the chest. He tried not to look at it, and soon enough he forgot that it was even there.)_ _

_ _* _ _

_ _Sora kept the photo of Roxas from the box in his pocket. It felt like the right thing to do, and he felt a little lighter keeping it near him. It was right, having something of one of his soulmates with him now that Riku and Kairi were somewhere far away; and if he just knew that this was Roxas, then that meant that he’d meet him soon. It had to._ _

_ _(When he fought him inside his heart, seeing and feeling all of his pain, all of his sadness, Sora knew that he had to do something. Even if in the end Roxas had understood, he couldn’t just leave him in his heart. That wasn’t where his soulmate should be, that wasn’t what should have happened to him. He couldn’t leave it like this. Even if it took him a long time, he would make it right.)_ _

_ _*_ _

_ _Sora didn’t think he’d ever really forgive himself for not recognising Riku, even when he looked like Ansem. What kind of soulmate was he, to not even realise that his soulmate was standing in front of him? Kairi had known it was him, and she wasn’t Riku’s soulmate. But when his hand was in Riku’s, and Riku was safe and alive and looking at him, it didn’t matter that his form had changed so much that Sora’s name was no longer on his wrist. He was still Riku, and that was all that mattered. _ _

_ _(When Ansem’s – the real Ansem, Ansem the Wise – machine exploded, and Riku looked like himself again, Sora felt a pang in his chest at the sight of the blindfold hiding his eyes. Later, Riku confessed that he had been ashamed to look at himself and see Ansem’s name across his throat, and terrified at the thought of not seeing Sora’s on his wrist. But in that moment, when Sora convinced him to take it off and look at him again, he didn’t miss how his eyes darted down to his wrist as though he couldn’t stop himself, and the full body shudder he gave at the sight of Sora’s name sitting strong and bold on his skin, same as it always had been. It wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was he. Not any more.)_ _

_ _Then they had been fighting side by side for probably the first time in their lives, fighting to save the worlds and avenge the Nobodies that had made their homes inside Sora’s and Kairi’s hearts, sharing their souls. And finally, after accepting a life together in the realm of darkness, they were back home again, and everything would be okay._ _

_ _*_ _

_ _“Riku?”_ _

_ _Riku almost jumped at the sound of Kairi’s voice, but he forced a smile when he saw her approach. Her hands were behind her back, and an awkward smile was on her face. He shuffled a little further along the paopu tree, leaving room for her to join him if she wanted to, and tried to make sure he met her eyes. _ _

_ _He was grateful for her, of course – she had been the one who recognised him even with Ansem’s face, she had come to him and had accepted him even after all he had done. But it still was difficult to look at her, knowing everything he had done out of jealousy. He hadn’t been able to accept that she was Sora’s soulmate too, and that had sent them all on this journey that had claimed so many lives. He was trying to get better, trying to accept himself and move past what he had done, but sometimes it was hard. _ _

_ _“Kairi,” he greeted. “Is… everything okay?”_ _

_ _“I’ve been thinking,” she replied, awkwardly pulling herself onto the paopu tree while still hiding something behind her back. “About the soulmates thing.” Riku tensed a little, but Kairi didn’t react. “I… I’ve always thought it wasn’t fair, that we both had Sora and not each other too. Not when you were looking for me across all the worlds-”_ _

_ _“-and you saw me,” Riku finished, a little awkwardly. “It… it would be a lot easier, if we had each other too.”_ _

_ _Kairi’s face brightened, and she nodded vigorously. “It would be, but just because fate hasn’t decided it, that doesn’t mean that we can’t choose each other.” And then she pulled her hands out from behind her back, and Riku blinked down at the pen and needle in her hands. _ _

_ _It took him a moment to piece it together, but when he did a warm, fond sensation swelled in his chest and he met her eyes. _ _

_ _“Are you sure?” he asked. _ _

_ _She nodded. “You’re my best friend. If Namine is my soulmate, and Roxas is Sora’s too because of the things that have happened to our hearts, then why shouldn’t we be?” There was an incredibly serious look in her eyes. “I care about you a lot, Riku. We should be part of our lives no matter what, soulmates or not.”_ _

_ _Riku couldn’t think of anything else to say, so instead he simply offered her his empty wrist. _ _

_ _By the time Sora joined them on the play island, Kairi’s name had been tattooed on Riku’s wrist, and Riku’s on Kairi’s. Even if fate hadn’t made them soulmates, they wouldn’t let it keep them apart or pit them against each other. Never again. _ _

_ _*_ _

_ _They received the letter from King Mickey a little later, promising to make Sora and Riku Masters, in order to rescue the people whose lives had touched Sora’s without him even knowing. And when Riku came to take Kairi to Yen Sid’s tower, to help them fight a war to save the worlds, they knew that whatever happened, they would all be together. _ _

_ _Nothing could tear them apart._ _


End file.
